The art of storytelling is a form of communication dating back to ancient times. Storytelling allows humans to pass information on to one another for entertainment and instructional purposes. Oral storytelling has a particularly long history and involves the describing of a series of events using words and other sounds. More recently, storytellers have taken advantage of pictures and other visual presentations to relate the events comprising the story. Particularly effective is a combination of audio and visual representations, most commonly found in motion pictures, television programs, and video presentations.
Until recently, narrative presentations have typically been non-interactive, the series of events forming the story being presented as a sequence of narrative segments is a predefined set or chosen by a director or editor. Although “Director's Cuts” and similar presentations may provide a media content consumer with additional media content (e.g., additional scenes) or information related to one or more production aspects of the narrative, such information is often presented as an alternative to the standard narrative presentation (e.g., theatrical release) or simultaneous (e.g., as a secondary audio program) with the standard narrative presentation. At times, such “Director's Cuts” provide the media content consumer with additional scenes (e.g., scenes removed or “cut” during the editing process to create a theatrical release). However, such presentation formats still rely on the presentation of narrative segments in an order completely defined by the director or editor before release.
At other times, supplemental content in the form of voiceovers or similar features involving actors or others involved in the production of the narrative is available to the media content consumer (e.g., BD-LIVE® for BLU-RAY® discs). However, such content is often provided as an alternative to or contemporaneous with the narrative. Thus, such features rely on the presentation of narrative segments in an order predefined by the director or editor.
Some forms of media provide the media content consumer with an ability to affect the plotline offer another alternative. For example, video games may implement a branching structure, where various branches will be followed based on input received from the media content consumer. Also for example, instructional computer programs may present a series of events where media content consumer input selections change the order of presentation of the events, and can cause the computer to present some events, while not presenting other events.